Material Culture and the Greek and Latin Classroom

University of Mary Washington Eagle Scholar Classics, Philosophy, and Religion College of Arts and Sciences 2018 Material Culture and the Greek and Latin Classroom Liane Houghtalin Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.umw.edu/cpr Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Classical Archaeology and Art History Commons, and the Education Commons Teaching Classical Languages Volume 9, Issue 1 Houghtalin 39 Material Culture and the Greek and Latin Classroom Liane Houghtalin University of Mary Washington ABSTRACT Responding to the new Standards for Classical Language Learning, this article emphasizes the importance of material culture to the study of Greek and Latin language and literature at every level, both K-12 and college. Using inscriptions on Greek vases and Roman coins as well as maps and house plans as examples, it demonstrates ways to insert material culture into the Greek and Latin classroom that will enhance a student’s knowledge of the language. It also shows how the use of material culture will help a class meet not only the Cultures goal of the new Standards, but also the Connections, Comparisons, and Communication goals. KEYWORDS Roman coins, material culture, inscriptions, maps, house plans, Standards, Greek vases A student starting French or Spanish can hold a short conversation in the target language after just one week of class. What can we offer students beginning their journey in ancient Greek or Latin? This article will demonstrate ways to insert material culture into high school and college Greek and Latin classrooms through inscriptions on Greek vases and Roman coins and through the exploration of maps and plans. By adding material culture to the pursuit of Greek and Latin as soon as possible in the elementary and intermediate classrooms, instructors can offer additional practice in the language, present an immediate and meaningful application for the hours of memorization faced by the beginning student, and fulfill multiple goals required by the new Standards for Classical Language Learning. The World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages, published in 2015, and its application to Latin and ancient Greek, the revised Standards for Classical Language Learning, embrace knowing and understanding the culture behind a language as part of the five Cs of learning languages – Communication, Cultures, Con- nections, Comparisons, and Communities. These Standards recognize both that language offers a gateway into another culture and that a true understanding of another Houghtalin, Liane. “Material Culture and the Greek and Latin Classroom.” Teaching Classi- cal Languages 9.1 (2018): 39-53. ISSN 2160-2220. Teaching Classical Languages Volume 9, Issue 1 Houghtalin 40 language cannot be attained without an appreciation of the language’s cultural con- text. According to the Cultures goal of the Standards for Classical Language Learn- ing, “Learners use Latin or Greek to investigate, explain, and reflect on the relation- ship between the products and perspectives of the cultures studied.” The tangible material remains of the Greek and Roman worlds (that is, the “products”) and the practices associated with those remains therefore form an essential background to the study of Greek and Latin, and every Greek and Latin classroom at every level should incorporate references to material culture. Many, if not most, K-12 faculty routinely do incorporate such references, often through extensive units on Roman art and architecture. College faculty, however, sometimes point out that there are entire courses on college campuses devoted to Greek and Roman art and archaeology and question why they should expend valuable time meant for languages on such topics. Not every Greek or Latin student, however, takes art or archaeology courses; even for those who do, references to material culture as support and explanation for literary texts serve both to enhance the text and to reinforce the many interconnections within a liberal arts curriculum. In addition, the typical college classroom contains future K-12 teachers, and it is im- portant for college faculty to guide them through how material culture could be used in their own potential classrooms. Finally, including material culture in the Greek and Latin classroom will help the language student not only with the language itself, but also with issues of time, place, and social rank in antiquity. GREEK VASES The opportunity to transliterate names on a 6th century BCE vase gives students right at the start of elementary Greek an immediate, solid connection to the past as well as significant practice with the alphabet. The simplest exercise would be to assign the students relatively isolated images of well-known gods and heroes, as in Figs. 1 and 2. Having individuals or small groups work out that the label above the male figure on the left of the scene in Fig. 1 identifies him as the god Dionysus or that the inscriptions next to the men in Fig. 2 identify them as Achilles and Ajax would encourage the students with the crucial feeling that they are mastering this new alphabet early on. This exercise also reminds students that language and writing change over time, so the inscriptions may be retrograde (written right to left instead of left to right), as with the label for Achilles in Fig. 2. Likewise, inscriptions may also use Teaching Classical Languages Volume 9, Issue 1 Houghtalin 41 Fig. 1. Detail of Attic black-figure neck-amphora; scene of Dionysus holding a kantharos facing two maenads holding a hare, by the Amasis Painter, c.540 BCE; from Vulci, now in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Médailles 222. Photograph by Marie-Lan Nguyen, Wikimedia Commons. Fig. 2. Detail of handle on the François Vase, Attic black-figure volute-krater; scene of Ajax carrying body of Achilles, by Kleitias (potter: Ergotimos), c.570 BCE; from Chiusi, now in Florence, Museo Archeologico 4209. Photograph from Wikimedia Commons. Teaching Classical Languages Volume 9, Issue 1 Houghtalin 42 a slightly different form of the Greek alphabet (the “old Attic alphabet”) and some- what different spellings than they see in their textbooks. Boardman (202) includes a chart of various letter forms found on 6th century BCE Attic vases. Especially no- table differences in spelling include the use of epsilon and omicron in place of eta and omega and the use of the letter heta (H) for an initial h-sound. See, for example, the spelling of Hermes on the Euphronios krater in Fig. 3, below. Fig. 3. Detail of Attic red-figure calyx-krater; scene of Hermes (standing, center) watching Hypnos and Thanatos carry Sarpedon from the field of battle at Troy, by Euphronios (potter: Euxitheos), c.515 BCE; formerly in New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, now in Cerveteri, Museo Nazionale Cerite. Photograph by Jaime Ardiles-Arce, Wikimedia Commons. In addition, Greek vases offer practice and reinforcement for vocabulary and grammar. Fig. 3 shows Hermes attending the removal of Sarpedon’s body from the battlefield of Troy by Hypnos and Thanatos. Each figure is labelled, so the student is able to gain visual reinforcement of the vocabulary for the twin concepts of hypnos and thanatos, sleep and death. The vase represented in Fig. 3 also presents lessons in verbs and adjectival agreement. It is a kalos vase – that is, it is inscribed with a youth’s name and the information that he is kalos, or “handsome.” Leagros kalos, Teaching Classical Languages Volume 9, Issue 1 Houghtalin 43 or “Leagros [is] handsome,” is written retrograde between Hypnos and Hermes, reminding the student that the verb “to be” may be left out of a Greek sentence and that the subject and predicate adjective of a linking verb must agree in case, number, and gender. The signatures of the vase’s potter (Euchsitheos epoiesen, or “Euxitheos made,” to the left of Hypnos) and painter (Euphronios egraphsen, or “Euphronios painted,” above the head of Thanatos) introduce two more verbs, both in the third person singular aorist. Fig. 4. Detail of Attic black-figure amphora; scene of Achilles and Ajax playing a game, by Exekias, c.530 BCE; from Vulci, now in Vatican, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco 16757. Photograph by Jakob Bådagård, Wikimedia Commons. Fig. 4 illustrates the famous Attic black-figure amphora by Exekias that de- picts Achilles and Ajax playing a game during a lull in the fighting at Troy. Exekias included the names of the heroes in the genitive and even what they were saying during the game (Achilles is announcing that he has a four and Ajax that he has a three), as well as a kalos inscription and his signature. (See Clark, Elston, and Hart 100 and 143 for more on kalos inscriptions and signatures.) Vases such as the ones represented by Figs. 3 and 4 could be saved for later lessons – for the genitive, numbers, adjectives, and verbs – or they could be used at the start for practice in transliteration and then reintroduced when relevant grammar comes up, each time reinforcing and building upon earlier lessons. Teaching Classical Languages Volume 9, Issue 1 Houghtalin 44 Many elementary textbooks include simplified stories involving Greek gods and heroes, and it might be possible to return to some of these same vases when those stories turn up. Moreover, there is potential for again reintroducing these vases, by now old friends, into the intermediate or advanced classroom. Noting the range of the different vase shapes used at a symposium, for example, could help set the scene while reading Plato. (Steiner 237-39 and Oakley 18-19, for symposium shapes.) The images of various gods, heroes, and events might also be recalled while reading Homer. It should be mentioned, however, that the vase in Fig. 4 holds some- thing of an object lesson – pun intended – for budding Hellenists, since it reveals a scene included neither in Homer nor in any surviving written tradition.

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